TKO!

Last blog post from me!

It was a great year! 

I expected these courses to be very difficult for me but it definitely turned out to be a positive experience.

I really did like what I wrote and I'm glad I was sort of forced into being creative and composing. I think it would've taken me a lot longer to complete the music if I didn't have this course pushing me.

I want to thank everyone for the feedback. It was greatly appreciated.

Everyone should keep composing!

Thanks again.

Have a great break.

Melissa

Round eleven. Fight!

This week I've basically been editing. I would still like to write a little more, but I'm not really concerned. I really wanted to get all the dynamics in and that sort of thing.

I presented and I got some neat suggestions. I have added some in already and some I've decided not to incorporate. Some notable ones were adding a higher cluster in the beginning part, adding a descending scalar passage into the low octave notes in the bass, and adding more to the gliss. part.

On to the most important thing I've done this week. (Not really)

Title!

My piece is now entitled Omega Centauri (NGC 5139).

If you want to see a photo of this go here:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090301.html

I absolutely love this site. 

I thought it was cool that this is the largest nearby globular cluster and my piece is based on cluster chords. I don't care if that is cheesy. 

I really wish I had better math skills so I could be an astronomer.

For now I am just a regular observer but who knows what will happen! Maybe I will be like Brian May and do both music and astronomy!

:)

Goodnight.

Round ten. Fight!

So this week I presented a little more of my work.

I like what I had written this week a lot more than what I wrote first.

I got some really positive feedback from a lot of people and that was greatly appreciated.

Some things I need to work on are:

Varying the passages a little bit. I need to keep things a bit more interesting.

Changing pitch centers/modulating

I had intentions of modulating so I guess I will start putting that in now!

Have a good night!

:)

Round nine. Fight!

...

so this journal should bring me up to date!

I presented what I had written on Sibelius this past Monday.

I am a little unsure of what I have but I got some feedback that made me feel a bit better about it.

I feel like I really need reassurance to keep going.

Simon said he definitely got a darkness and a lightness from my piece and that was really nice to hear. Others seemed to enjoy it as well.

Some things I could add are little melody lines that connect the chords and having different ranges and broken chords as well.

I was told to keep going and I think that's because there is not a lot of time left!

I'm sure I'll write something that I'm content with. (hopefully)

:)

Round eight. Fight!

Alright.

I'm a little behind with my journal making but that's just because I've been busy with other stuff.

So this post is for March 9th!

I presented what I had on the piano and it seemed to go over well.

I got a lot of feedback that day.

We took a sort of tally of what I had and went from there.

What I wanted to create was something that was based on clusters and that sounded spacey.

I was told that I should widen the space between the notes because that'll create a very "space-like" effect. I'm definitely going to try that.

I was also told that I could have a cluster in the piano and have the strings create another chord that crescendos out of that chord. That's definitely a neat idea and I plan on using that as well.

I was really appreciative of the feedback and although I haven't used it all yet I definitely plan on incorporating it at some point!

:)

Round seven. Fight!

Hello all.

Just doing a quick little update here.

So composition number one is complete and has been preformed. 

Overall I think it went well. A lot of people seemed to enjoy it. (and the tree... I mean and I was happy.)   

...yeah that was lame.

Anyways. On to composition number two!

I was going to write for string quartet and piano or as Dylan pointed out a Piano quintet.

My main idea for this is to use cluster chords and suspensions.

I might play a little somethin' somethin' on Friday to get some feedback on the idea.

I might even change the instrumentation because what I want is more piano based I think.

Oh well, I'm sure the class can help me out with that.

That's all for now!

Round six. Fight!

So I finally complete my piece. It felt like it took FOREVER to do.

It's 16 pages and 6 minutes long! To be honest it felt like this one piece took as much time as everything I did last year combined! 

Putting the X's in the narrator part took forever, as did lining up the text in the actual parts.

... but it's over now.

I'm kind of excited to see how it turns out. I am not sure if I'm going to narrate it or not yet.

I would kind of like a male voice, but we'll see what happens. 

I think I might do it myself because I know exactly what I want.

As for the next project I'm thinking about a string quartet or a string quartet with piano (if allowed.)

NO TEXT. :)

I'm really glad some people are thinking about writing for concert band because I would love to hear/see the process. I just don't think I am ready for such a project myself in such a short amount of time!

Good luck for everyone next week!